Emperors, Trials and Rebirth Self Guided Tour of Nuremberg

Walk around the bronze marriage scenes that were built to hide a subway ventilation shaft.

Stand before the toll gate that helped keep a city unbesieged for the entire Middle Ages.

Pass through thirty pillars inscribed in thirty languages — placed here to answer for laws once written in this same city.

Step inside one of the first churches in Germany to break with Rome and embrace Luther's revolution.

Read a stone Bible carved for a congregation that couldn't read a single word.

Look up at the wooden masterpiece that survived the war only because citizens carried it into tunnels beneath the castle.

Cross a bridge engineered like Venice's Rialto, then find the stone ox that was never a calf.

Peer into the chapel where the Holy Roman Empire's crown jewels were guarded for nearly four centuries.

Stand in a market square built on ground that was cleared by a pogrom — and sanctioned by an emperor.

Search for the loose brass ring locals say grants wishes — and notice who's watching from the pillar above.

Wait for noon and watch mechanical figures re-enact an oath sworn to an emperor in this very square.

Spot the altarpiece panel where a medieval painter hid Nuremberg's own skyline inside a biblical scene.

Pause at the building where diplomats once feasted upstairs while prisoners suffered in dungeons directly below.

Face the crucifix that was carved with its eyes open — and consider why that unsettled an entire congregation.

Trace the carved figures flanking the entrance and find the prince holding a church in the palm of his hand.

See the bronze shrine where a saint's bones rest inside a masterwork that took its creator over a decade to finish.

Enter the studio of the artist who turned a simple watercolour of a hare into one of the most recognised paintings on earth.

Climb to the fortress where every Holy Roman Emperor was required to hold court — and find out what happened when one refused.

Look down from walls that were never breached and trace the layers of power built into the hilltop over five centuries.

Descend into the tunnels where Nuremberg hid its greatest treasures from the bombs — and where American soldiers found a stolen crown.

Walk the bridge once reserved for the city's executioner — the one man nobody in Nuremberg would live beside.

Stroll the last intact row of medieval half-timbered houses and ask why this street survived when ninety percent of the Old Town didn't.